PUBLIC ACQUISITION OF THE MANUFASCTURERS WATER COMPANY PROPERTIES - The Real Story

By Len Lichvar, Chairman, SCRIP

For nearly a century the water impoundments of the Quemahoning, Hinckston Run and Wilmore Reservoirs as well as the South Fork and Border Dams fueled the mighty steel making engines of Johnstown. The steel produced powered America's Industrial Revolution and helped win two world wars.

In more recent times a changing world economy reduced the capacity and vitality of domestic steel making creating the infrastructure that powered them to become less essential or obsolete.

Today, thanks to foresighted conservationists, sportsmen and local citizens the reservoirs that powered the former economic engines of the Cambria-Somerset region have been reinvented and are now empowering a new generation of economic and recreational opportunities that may be more long lasting, sustainable and resource friendly than ever before.

The five reservoirs and surrounding property, comprising over 5,000 acres, began their origins as the Manufacturers Water Company, a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel. They were constructed as the need for water expanded beginning with the construction of Border Dam across the Stonycreek River in 1898. Within 30 years all five reservoirs were constructed and in use.

The Quemahoning Reservoir, in Somerset County, was the last of the five to be constructed and is the largest and most impressive. The earthen breast is 955 feet long and 100 feet high. The capacity is 92.3 billion gallons of water that is derived from the 92 square mile Quemahoning Creek watershed. The 66- inch diameter pipeline from the reservoir to Johnstown can carry up to 101 million gallons a day (MGD) and in the golden years of steel making as much as 90 MGD went down the line.

The reservoirs of the Manufacturers Water Company were never well known or understood by the general public because their purpose was singular in scope. They were all private and off limits except for a private recreational facility, known as Bethco Pines, controlled by Bethlehem Steel.

In the final two decades of the 20th Century Bethlehem began to downsize. The steel giant put the reservoirs up for sale in the late 1980's, but a deal was never finalized. However, this signal was picked up by the conservation community and the Somerset Conservation District, led by District Manager and SCRIP board member Dave Steele, decided to be proactive and introduced a measure plan to the Southern Alleghenies Resource Conservation and Development Council to have a plan in place that could act to implement a public acquisition if the properties came up for sale again.

The Somerset Conservation District also invited and hosted Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (PADCNR) Secretary John Oliver on a tour of the Quemahoning Reservoir site in order to lay the groundwork for any potential assistance and funding request that might be required if the properties became available.

In late 1997 that foresight would be realized when SCRIP board member Brad Clemenson of U. S. Congressman Murtha's office made an announcement at the SCRIP board meeting that Bethlehem Steel was going to sell the Manufacturers Water Company properties. The only question was who was going to be the buyer. SCRIP board member Joe Gorden, after a silence from the board, abruptly said, "Well, either we are going to do something about this or let’s move on with the agenda of the meeting." That prompted SCRIP board Dave Mankamyer to speak up and say, "If we are going to attempt a public acquisition the first thing we need is a feasibility study.”

With the RC&D measure plan in place, SCRIP decided to charge the RC&D Coordinator and SCRIP board member Ron Donlan and its implementation arm the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy (SAC), with creating a feasibility study to determine if the public acquisition would be an economically sound concept. Funding was secured from PADCNR through the then under way Kiski-Conemaugh River Conservation Plan, being coordinated by SCRIP board member Rob McCombie. Paul C. Rizzo and Associates was hired to perform a 6 month long study that was tracked by a volunteer committee, chaired by SCRIP board member Lester McNutt, comprised of stakeholders in the region and facilitated by SAC.

In May of 1998, at the conclusion of the feasibility study process, a public meeting was facilitated by SAC Executive Director and SCRIP Chairman Len Lichvar. The event was held at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and drew over 200 attendees that included elected officials and the media to hear the announcement that a public acquisition was indeed feasible. The outcry of public support generated at the meeting galvanized the county commissioners in Cambria and Somerset Counties with the initiative to form a cooperative venture to secure the funds for purchase.

During the negotiations that followed a number of private wealthy outside interests competed for the purchase. Also the Greater Johnstown Water Authority threatened to derail the public effort by threatening legal actions and other maneuvers. To help assure the success of the public venture as negotiations between the united commissioners and Bethlehem Steel unfolded the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy applied for and received a 1.5 million dollar land acquisition grant from PA DCNR that added the needed dollars to the Commissioners creative funding package and sealed the deal with a total purchase offer of 6.2 million dollars. Bethlehem Steel accepted the offer and in August of 2000 the sale was completed to the newly formed Cambria-Somerset Authority (CSA) that was created by the Commissioners to own and manage the reservoirs and properties.

The covenants of the PA DCNR grant mandate that the properties remain open to the public and the CSA has far exceeded that mandate through the use of innovative partnerships with organizations and agencies to expand recreational attributes at the Quemahoning, Wilmore and Hinckston Run Reservoirs. The reservoirs now are an ever expanding public destination point for local citizens and tourists that take advantage of the fishing, boating, swimming, hiking, camping, nature trails and hunting that are now available. Through a unique agreement at the Quemahoning Reservoir a summer youth camp, Summers Best Two Weeks, is now in full operation as well.

The CSA also maintains water sales through the traditional transmission systems from the reservoirs to a variety of customers in the Cambia-Somerset region. The Quemahoning pipeline, completed in 2009, now also carries water to locations in northern Somerset County. This significant project now expands the public water sales and use to provide customers with water who had not had a reliable supply in the past and to spur economic development where lack of water supply prevented expansion of business and industry.

It was the conservation community through SCRIP, who realized before anyone else, the opportunities that could occur from the public control of these water resources. The foresighted vision and actions of SCRIP and its partners have been fully justified by the significant recreational and economic outcomes derived from the public acquisition.